The Veilguard received positive reviews, but its quick transition to PS+ may be an indication that its long-term sales projections don't quite meet publisher Electronic Arts' hopes.

The Veilguard headlines PlayStation Plus' March 2025 games, coming to subscribers of all three tiers alongside Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection. If the latest Dragon Age were an entrant to the PS+ Game Catalog for Extra and subscribers, there may be no cause for alarm, but such a blockbuster release being one of the three monthly games so soon after its release is unprecedented. This move from EA only points to a dire sales situation, and with recent news regarding BioWare, Dragon Age may be going on indefinite hiatus.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Didn't Meet Sales Expectations

It "Engaged" 1.5 Million Players

In a press release from Electronic Arts in late January, the publisher acknowledged that The Veilguard performed about half as well as expected:

Separately, Dragon Age engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter, down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations.

This has some notably odd wording, with EA hinging on an undefined engagement metric. Speculation may point to the numbers including those who tried The Veilguard via a game trial on EA Play, the publisher's own subscription service, but that's largely beside the point, since the press release explicitly states this was well below the game's expected performance.

This was an unexpected turn considering what appeared to be a successful launch. According to VGC, Dragon Age: The Veilguard dethroned Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as Steam's best-selling game, reaching a concurrent player count of over 70,000 within 24 hours of release, BioWare's most successful launch on Steam to date. Add to this Dragon Age's name recognition and irable Metacritic aggregate scores, Veilguard seems like it was poised to be the success BioWare needed after the failure of its last original game, Anthem, in 2019.

A month removed from EA's press release, The Veilguard's inclusion in March's PlayStation Plus Essential line-up appears to indicate that the action RPG did not have legs. EA may be trying to get a final chunk of revenue out of The Veilguard from Sony, expecting its long-term sales to taper drastically. Although the full picture isn't necessarily clear, the limited figures don't really point to Dragon Age being a profitable avenue for EA to continue investing in.

After Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare Is Down To A Skeleton Crew

The Next Mass Effect Is In Early Development

Early in February, Dragon Age received its final major update in January.

According to an EA investors call (via IGN), Mass Effect Legendary Edition performed "well above" the company's expectations. The Legendary Edition is, importantly, a remastered collection of the original Mass Effect trilogy, all three of which remain beloved games. Mass Effect's previous release, Andromeda, does not have a stellar reputation, and caused the series to be put on ice for a number of years.

Excitement for a new Mass Effect is palpable, though, and at this point, it may be BioWare's last opportunity to avoid closure under EA. The developer has an exceptionally stellar back catalog, but since Dragon Age: Inquisition won Game of the Year at 2014's The Game Awards and became BioWare's best-selling title, it canceled an asymmetrical multiplayer game called Shadow Realms, and released three games that could be considered failures – Andromeda, Anthem, and The Veilguard – at least from EA's perspective.

The Veilguard May Be The Last Dragon Age Game

Long, Troubled Development With Little Payoff

A fourth Dragon Age began its earliest development in 2015, but was interrupted and reimagined multiple times; most famously, it became a live-service project for a time, before transitioning back to single-player upon Anthem's failure. Nine years of development isn't unheard of on the AAA side of the industry, but even when BioWare had more personnel, it was roughly 10 times smaller than industry giants like Rockstar Games, which has been working on Grand Theft Auto 6 for a similar length of time.

Rockstar Games comprises multiple studios, but its protracted development periods provide a good comparison for contextualizing the resources required to develop a game over the course of a decade.

Suffice it to say, Dragon Age: The Veilguard needed to be a hit, and despite a promising start, it wasn't. In of financial viability, Dragon Age is now a huge risk, especially if a subsequent game became mired in another rocky development cycle. The Veilguard may be the last Dragon Age game we see, if not ever, then certainly in a very long time.

It also doesn't bode well for Mass Effect considering its restricted development team and similar hiatus, but more importantly, BioWare and those who work there appear to be on thin ice. Dragon Age has long been a cornerstone of fantasy RPGs, but the underwhelming performance of The Veilguard might be the final nail in the coffin. Dragon Age: The Veilguard coming to PlayStation Plus might help it reach a wider audience, but it also may be evidence that Dragon Age is dead.

Sources: Electronic Arts, VGC, Metacritic, IGN